On the Flipside
by Corrosive Moon
Summary: It's all fun and games until someone gets plowed into the ground by a gummi ship driven by a keyblade-wielding hero.
1. Chapter 1

**My God, it's been _ages_, hasn't it, readers? I really do apologize for my absence. Life has happened to me over the past few years. Long story short: I now have an anxiety disorder and went into therapy. **

**But anyway, this story has been something I've been thinking on over those lost years. I hadn't intended to publish it, but as I began to add more and more to it I started really wanting to share it with you. So I hope you like it.**

**A word of precaution guys: Just take it in stride. _Take it stride. _**

**__****DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN KINGDOM HEARTS.**

* * *

_On the Flip Side_

* * *

It's all fun and games until someone gets plowed into the ground by a gummi ship driven by a keyblade-wielding hero.

* * *

_Chapter 1: Sora_

* * *

"So Mister… Yorushi," Coordinater of the Medical Program of the prestigious Destiny University, Mikal Posluzny M.D., Ph.D, D. , etc, etc, says as he glances at my resume and transcript once more. "You want to be a part of our Medical Program?"

"Yes,sir," I answer promptly, my back straight and eyes forward.

"You were summa cum laude of your class, you speak Spanish, French, Japanese and English fluently, you've scored top marks on your SAT scores, you have at least one hundred and fifty hours of volunteer service and…" Dr. Posluzny hummed thoughtfully. "…You work at a bar?"

"I'm a bartender at Organization XIII." Already my palms are starting to sweat like crazy. "My real interest is in psychiatry."

Dr. Posluzny raises a brow. "A very unusual field. One that most people are not apt to jump into enthusiastically."

"I've always been interested in abnormal psychology—helping people with problems I can't touch but are definitely real."

Dr. Posluzny laces his fingers together elegantly in front of him and leans forward into his chair. "Very poetically put."

I can't help but grin. "Thank you."

* * *

"Soooo how'd the interview go, Riku?" Axel, my best friend asks that night.

"Great!" I say, twirling the whiskey bottle with a flourish. "I think by this time next semester I'll be attending TTU."

"So how does this doctor thing work again?" Axel ties his fire engine red hair into a low ponytail.

"Four years in undergraduate school, four years in medical school, four years in residency—"

"Enough, enough, enough!" Axel nearly covers his ears. "That's too much school! Good God, all I need to know is that the endgame is you can prescribe me Xanax if I want you to!"

"Time is money, gentlemen," Luxord, the cashier, sing-songs without taking his eyes off the cash register.

"Right, boss…" we both mutter at the same time. Axel goes to fetch a bottle while I pour a shot for a customer. The man thanks me, tosses back the drink like it could save him if he swallowed it fast enough, and begins to talk. I listen.

"Demyx, get your skinny ass up on that piano!" Luxord barks.

"Righie-o, boss!" Demyx shimmies and wiggles his way up the stage and greets the evening crowd.

Axel pours drinks.

Demyx sings at the stand.

Saix breaks up fights.

Luxord counts cash.

I listen.

And when the man—now more than just slightly buzzed—salutes me with a monotonous good-night, another man starts to talk. I listen again. And when he's done, someone else pours their heart out. Their stories of aches and sighs are normal to me. So much so a minute of silence bothers me to no end and I can't help but ask another long-faced man what was his story.

It's just another night.

* * *

I step out of _Naught's Skyway _at three in the morning, taking my usual route home down a well-lit path. I stop by my favorite 24-hour convenience store for a moment to buy a blue raspberry-paupu icee and resume my trek to my apartment. On a whim, I decide to take the scenic route down by one of Destiny's beaches. One of the perks of living on an archipelago was that the beach was never really too far, even when you're living on the main island. A sip my icee idly as I inhale the scent of salt through my nose. I look up at the sky, tracing my own imaginary constellations in the stars.

I wonder if there are any worlds out there that are as tiny as the Destiny Isles. If so, is there someone like me looking up and wondering about the exact same thing? There must be... if there are that many worlds.

My thoughts are cut short by a sudden chill in the air. Odd. Destiny is never cold In the middle of summer. A sharp, icy pain suddenly shoots up my leg. I cry out and try to scuttle away but whatever has a hold my leg doesn't let go. In fact, I think I can feel it _climbing._

I fall backwards, scrambling to see what was attacking me. The first thing I see is a pair of yellow eyes peering up at me. It takes me a while to see the rest of the creature because its body is so black it was practically invisible in the night. Reflexively, my free foot comes up and kicks the thing between the eyes. It releases me and I'm tearing across the beach without looking back.

What the hell _was_ that thing? There were no creatures on Destiny like that! Who the hell am I supposed to call for help? Police? National Guard? Animal Control?_!_

Something cold collides into my back, knocking me to the ground face-first. The familiar chilling pain stabbing into my back confirms my worst fear: the thing that had attacked me at the beach was finally going to kill me.

Just as I prepare myself for my inevitable death, a blinding light fills the beach. I twist my head around and squint into the light—

* * *

—_And suddenly I am flying through the rooftops of Destiny, light as a feather. I feel so free I can almost feel the wind lifting me up at my feet. _

_I make my way to the business district, home to the few skyscrapers Destiny has. What am I doing here? Wasn't I on my way home? Wasn't there… something…?_

_My eye catches a reflection in the shiny windows of a skyscraper and I see that something is wrong, but I don't know what. My eyes are blue, like they always are. My spikey hair is brown, like it always is._

_Wait… No._

_That's not me—_

* * *

I wake up in my bed, the afternoon sunlight pouring into my room and my covers tangled around my legs.

Blinking several times, I slowly sit up and survey my surroundings. Sure enough, I am back in my apartment. I glance at my clock. 6:45 PM; just enough time for me to get ready and head to work.

…what weird dream. It was kind of cool though—all that flying. And that guy…

That guy was really _hot._

* * *

The bar is dirtier than usual today. A fight had broken out and it nearly consumed our entire place. Larxene stabbed the sharp heel of her shoe into someone's stomach, Axel practically had to rip someone off of Namine, and I was forced to take a blow to the face before Xigbar decided to take action and bring some order into the chaos.

So here we are, cleaning. We managed to rope Demyx into helping us by bribing him with alcoholic drinks, at least. As per our usual custom, Axel pours us a couple drinks and we toast to the night.

"To music!" Demyx shouts.

"To your future, Riku," Axel says as he raises the glass to me. "May you be a successful psychiatrist."

"May I always give you your Xanax refills, you mean, right?" I say with a wry smile as I hold the alcoholic drink to my lips.

_Hey!_

"Did you say something?" I ask.

"Eh?" Axel asks after he sets down his shot glass.

"Shh!" I wait for a moment, listening.

Silence.

Demyx makes a rather not so subtle gesture to Axel that he should cut me off already. I ignore them and try to drink—

_Don't you dare!_

"Okay, guys, you can't tell me you didn't hear that!" I place the glass down and glare at both of them.

Demyx and Axel cast wary looks at each other before turning to me again.

"Get some rest, Riku," Axel advises. "I think you need it."

The fact that I heard a voice that no one else could hear kept bothering me the entire way home. An ugly knot forms in my throat. There was probably someone shouting outside the bar that Axel and Demyx couldn't hear.

Yeah, that's probably it. I can't be hearing voices all by myself because then, I'd…

* * *

_I open the door carefully. I'm so small I have to tiptoe to reach the knob. I can already hear him muttering to himself quietly. Nonsense words, disconnected ideas that no one can understand, not even him._

"…_corpuscles, muscles, luzzle… And if we just reduce the amount… the momentum… lock it in—block it in. Frazzle yourself. Then I'd understand. We cook. Bunsen. Bunsen, we cook! Don't you understand you, fool? Pretzels! And he'll come. He comes in the dark."_

_He stands in the bleak, dark room, talking about these strange things. He does nothing else. _

"_Dad?" I call tentatively. _

"_LEAVE ME ALONE!"_

* * *

I shiver. Even now that memory frightens me. I quickly search for something else to focus on. I stab my key into my mailbox lock and open it.

My heart leaps into my throat when I see a letter with the Destiny University crest on it. I snatch it up and carefully, but quickly, open the letter.

My eyes quickly fly to the line, "_we are honored to accept you_" and as far as I knew the rest of the letter was meaningless. I had done it.

I had a future.

* * *

_I'm flying again, zipping through the small metropolitan area of Destiny's main island. No, I'm not flying. I'm running… running after—_

"_Sora, he's getting away!" someone from behind me shouts so loudly I almost jump. It almost feels like whoever-it-is is shouting at me, but… I'm not Sora. Gods, this is weird dream._

"_I'm goin'!" a voice says. It's me. No… it's coming from me. But it's not me. What is this? _

_I'm running faster, my head is zipping back and forth so fast I'm getting dizzy. Finally, I see what I'm after and I launch myself into the air. I can feel my eyes water, a pit wallows in my stomach, and I scream because I now realize this is one of those dreams where I crash—_

Oh, calm down! I won't crash! Geez…

_What?_

And can you keep it down, please? I'm trying to concentrate.

_Wha—wait. Are you… Are you talking to _me_?_

Well, duh!

_Oh God. Oh my God, this isn't a dream._

* * *

As I… he… we…? As he plummets, the world rushes towards me and his feet rises to meet it. The moment his shoes hit the ground he is moving. His hand whips out and with a burst of light something shiny, bright, and very, very real materializes. A key.

KEYBLADE. The word comes from the other guy's mind and reverberates in mine. Something inky black rises from the ground, bubbles up like a thick liquid before splitting into multiple, wiggling masses.

/I know what those are! Those are the things that attacked me last night!/

Heartless. Again the word comes from the other mind. But this time it feels different, it makes me frightened.

He's moving fast, slicing down the small monsters like nothing. This is child's play for him, I realize in awe.

"Shoot!" I hear him mutter under his breath. "It's not here."

/What isn't here?/

"The big one. The one I'm looking for."

/There's a _big one_? You're kidding!/

His head turns from side to side for a moment. "No, I'm not. Now pipe down. I need to find it before it gets away."

/No! Fuck that! You tell me what's going on right now! Right now or I will start screaming!/

"Oh, for the love of…!" I can feel him gritting his teeth. "Can't we do this later?"

/Not later. Now./

His irritation with me is palpable. But I don't back down.

All of a sudden the world breaks away, piece by piece like large shards of glass, before finally giving away to bright, white light.

And when I open my eyes again, I can see myself; my own hands, my own feet. I am in a magnificent room with blue-white stone walls and a beige floor. Blue pillars decorated in gold and grand doors are on either side of me. I glance behind me, towards a beautiful glass window that filters in iridescent light. I can feel shadows of emotions and whispers of memories stirring around me like a vibrant cloud. This place is very dear to him, I can tell.

"So," a voice says from behind me, "where do you want to start?"

I whirl around and I see him again: the brunet from my dreams. I now see all of his strange attire from his black and white jumper to his ridiculous yellow shoes. He looks younger than I thought he would be. He can't be older than 18.

"How about names?" I say, crossing my arms. "I'm Riku Yorushi."

"Sora," his blue eyes light up. "And I'm a Keyblade Master."

"A what?"

"Keyblade Master," he repeated, holding his hand out to me. Again, in a flash of light and stardust, the key-like weapon is in his hands. "Or Keybearer. Basically, I'm the one with the Keyblade."

Okay. …sure.

"And… that thing is a weapon?" I ask.

"The only real weapon that the Heartless fear."

"You mean those monsters you fought just now? The ones that…" a cold ice cube of dread creeps way up my throat when I realize that last night hadn't been a dream. "…the ones that attacked me last night."

"Yup. So here's the short version." Sora pauses, inhales deeply through his nose, and starts belting out words so fast I can barely keep up with him. "Heartless are bad. The heartless steal hearts. Not _actual _hearts but spiritual hearts." At this point he begins to gesture wildly. "When they take them from people, those people turn into heartless too. But people aren't the only ones with heart. There are tons of worlds out there and each one of them has a heart, too. Heartless eventually seek the heart of the world and when they find it the world falls into darkness and disappears. So it's my job to prevent that by fighting them with the Keyblade and sealing the world. With the Keyblade. …Yeah." By the end of that lengthy monologue, he's panting and my head is spinning. I say nothing. Well… it's more like I don't even know what to say.

"I know this sounds absolutely crazy—" Sora says.

No shit, Sherlock!

"—but the thing is _that's_ not even the craziest part."

Oh, boy.

"Just…" Sora shifts his weight from foot to foot, "try to take it in stride, okay?"

I nod. What else can I do?

"So what does all this have to do with me?" I ask. "Why are you in my head?"

He bites his lip. Not good.

"Riku, I'm not in your head," he says. "You're in mine."

Silence.

"And what…" I begin slowly, because my head is literally throbbing, "…is that supposed to mean?"

"Last night… you don't happen to remember a big, bright light, do you?" Sora asks.

"Um, yeah."

"Well, that was me. Driving a gummi ship. Crashing into you."

… … …

"Let me get this straight: you _KILLED _me." I take a step forward and I feel a sense of gratification rush through me as the almighty Keyblade Master takes a step back. "You… _mother-fucking killed me_ with a gummy bear ship."

"_Gummi_ ship," Sora corrects. "And I'm really sorry about that!"

"'Sorry,' doesn't exactly cut it!" I say vehemently. "I—why did you—what the hell, Sora! Just… what the fucking hell!"

"You know, that language really isn't appreciated!" Sora says, his hands on his hips. "And it's not like I did it on purpose! It was an accident! I was honestly trying to save you!"

"Yeah, well, you did a bang-up job!" I retort.

Sora's face nearly turns red all the way to his ears. The room shivers sympathetically with him. The air seems to vibrate as if charged with electricity. He's mad, I can feel it. I can tell that anger is a foreign expression for him, but he reigns in his rage and speaks diplomatically. "My friend Donald sent your… remains to someone who can help. There wasn't a lot of you left, so it's going to take a while to reconstruct your body. In the meantime, I'm carrying your heart with me to keep it from disappearing."

"So when I'm… on the outside…"

"You'll look like you," Sora gestures to me. "Silver hair and all. And when I'm out, I'll look like me. It's the best Donald could do. We're gonna have to share, but if we get along, we should be able to work it out."

I wanted to say that there was absolutely no way I could share my life. I mean, I had work and friends and responsibilities! And school! How am I supposed to go to school when my other half chases around evil, darkness creatures!_?_

But what could I do? I'm stuck in this position whether I like it or not.

"All right," I say. "Sounds good." At least Sora is owning up to what he did, for that I am thankful.

Sora smiles. "Now, if you'll excuse me, Riku," he begins. "I've got some work to do."

The image of the grand room breaks away into white and my world rushes towards me. Sora rockets into the skies again, scanning the terrain below for Heartless.

"There!" Sora says, shooting towards the ground and landing safely on the earth.

Before him is a gigantic, humanoid Heartless at least ten stories high with the same ghastly, yellow eyes as the Heartless that had attacked me yesterday. In the middle of the thing's chest is a large, gaping hole in the shape of a heart. I almost cringe at the size of the monster, but Sora isn't scared. In fact, I swear he's _thrilled._ I can almost feel that excitement bleeding into my own psyche. Suddenly, Sora races forward, Keyblade at the ready. He leaps high into the air and drives the end of his weapon into the thing's broad chest. It makes no noise, but it stumbles backwards and takes an awkward swing at Sora with a pitch-black hand.

However, Sora is already moving. He is sprinting up the Heartless' arm, his eye already on his next target: the head. He deals four, powerful strikes to the monster's face and jumps back to evade another glancing blow. He hits the ground running, circling the monster.

Meanwhile, I'm breathless with amazement.

/You're amazing!/ I tell him.

"Thanks!" he replies back, pleased.

With a great swing of Sora's Keyblade, the Heartless' leg buckles and it's on its knees. Sora reels his weapon back and—like a whip—throws it forward right between the Heartless' eyes.

It's over.

The giant monster jerks once more before falling backwards and disappearing into a dark haze. Sora sighs and rests his Keyblade on his shoulder.

"That takes care of that," he huffs. "Hey, Riku, do you know any good places to eat? I'm starving!"

* * *

**Weird story, huh? **

**Okay, so this fic was inspired by the anime, _Birdy the Mighty_, which is about a female, intergalactic officer named Birdy who accidentally kills a human boy, Tsutomu, in the crossfire of a battle with an alien fugitive who tried to seek refuge on Earth. Feeling sorry for him, she decides to transfer his consciousness into her own and they share a body while Tsutomu's body is being repaired.**

**Also! Um! _copycat-capycot_, if you're reading this, would you consider being my beta again? **

** - See you all next chapter! **

**|Corrosive Moon|**


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter 2: The Visitor From the Dark_

* * *

"Sora, what the hell did you do to my kitchen?" I ask out loud.

/Mm?/ Sora asks sleepily. /What did I do? /

'What did I do?' he asks. I survey the room so he could see it. My cabinets were open, food cartons were thrown everywhere, cups and dishes were chilling in a dog pile in my sink.

"I turn my back for eight hours to get some shut-eye and you totally eat me out of house and home!"

/I was hungry. /Sora defends himself. /What was I suppose to do? Besides, technically I'm eating for two here. /

After just a week of living in Sora's head, I've already populated a list of problems and, in no particular order, they are as follows:

(1) Sora has a monstrous appetite. The guy can eat three times his weight in one sitting easily. Unfortunately, according to him, it had always been that way and in fact, had _increased_ since our weird fusion. My only consolation is that Sora has a penchant for cheap foods like instant ramen and macaroni.

(2) No privacy. No elaboration needed.

(3) Talking to Sora out loud is all fine and dandy… unless I'm in a crowded room in public. In which case I look like a nutjob.

"Morning, Sora!" someone yells and I'm thrown back into what I've dubbed the "Flipside" as Sora rushes to meet his friends Donald and Goofy.

(4) Donald. Donald is an ill-tempered talking duck who happens to be a top-notch wizard from a fancy kingdom far, far away. (What. The. _Fuck_.) He has a personality that can be summed up with the word, "loud." However, Donald is the one who authorized my body to be re-created and somehow managed to make Sora's body co-inhabitable. So, unfortunately, I can't really say anything against him to his face. The only person who would be more annoying that Donald would be…

(5) Goofy, the clumsy talking dog who apparently is a high-ranking knight from the same famous castle Donald's from. Though unlike Donald, Goofy's actually nice, but half the time he's either wrecking something or sleeping or has his attention elsewhere.

I honestly don't know who to be afraid of more: Donald, Goofy, or the idiot who appointed them to their distinguished positions.

"Found anything yet?" Sora asks them.

"Nope!" Goofy replies brightly. "Nuthin'!"

Sora sighs.

/I still don't understand what you're looking for,/ I say. /Didn't you already kill the monster?/

"It's not that simple, Riku," Sora says aloud, he often forgets that he can talk to me mentally.

/So why don't you tell me?/

"I already told you: it's official Keybearer business. You already know too much as it is."

/Like I'm not gonna know when you find whatever it is you're looking for! I _see_ and _hear_ everything you do, lame-ass!/

Sora heaves a deep sigh and slaps his palm to his forehead.

"What's up, Sora?" Goofy asks.

"It's Riku. He's kind of being a jerk."

/Oh, don't you blame this on me!/

Sora rubs his temple. "You don't have to yell," he mumbles to me.

/And you don't have to turn this into a complete exercise in futility,/ I shoot back. /What's the thing you're looking for?/

"All right, all right," Sora turns away from his friends, "you remember when I told you that the Heartless can plunge worlds into darkness?"

/Yeah./

"They do that by finding a keyhole in the world. A special keyhole that leads to the heart of the planet. The heartless crawl into the keyhole and destroy the world from the inside out."

/And you can stop it by locking up the keyhole with the Keyblade, I'm guessing?/ I remember Sora's brief overview the first night I was aware of him.

"Yup. The best way to find the Keyhole is to watch the Heartless' movements. They're naturally drawn to it."

/So what's the hold up?/

"I don't know."

/You're lying./

"How in the world do you _do_ that?_!_" he asks in exasperation.

"What's he doing?" Donald asks, folding his arms suspiciously.

"Nothing," Sora replies quickly.

/One, you're terrible at lying. Two, I'm in your freakin' head. Quite literally./

Sora doesn't give me an answer right away. "…We think that there's someone out there controlling the Heartless."

/You can _do_ that?/

"That's what we're trying to find out. We're going to continue our search tonight."

/Tonight? But I have work!/

"Your very _world_ is at stake here, Riku. Besides, I don't think working at a bar is doing you any good. And stop drinking for goodness sake! Do you have any idea how bad alcohol is for you?"

/I work at a bar. Think about what you just asked./

* * *

I can tell there's more to the story than what Sora was willing to tell me. But since he's trying so hard to hide it, I figured it was best not to decides to patrol around the main island while Donald and Goofy looks for clues at the surrounding islands.

"So you're studying to be a psychiatrist," Sora says.

/Sora, headset./

"Oh, yeah! Right!"

Since Sora still has a terrible habit of talking out loud to me, I make sure he carries a bluetooth headset so he can put it on his ear.

"Soooo… psychology," he continues. "Sounds neat."

/Yeah. It's pretty cool./

"What made you get into it?"

/…My dad was schizophrenic./

That's an answer Sora isn't prepared for. He fidgets for a moment. "Oh," he says quietly. "Um, sounds rough."

/It was. Schizophrenia usually hits early. Like in the twenties or thirties. So, I kinda grew up with him like that./

I try not to think about it but I do anyway. My father is in his room, waving his arms wildly, shouting at people that aren't there. I used to be scared of him. I used to hate him, too. But when I got older and he only got worse, I began to pity him. He lived out the rest of his life lost in a horrifying imaginary world. All up until he…

Sora continues walking idly through the streets. I think he can sense that this topic was uncomfortable and painful for me, but he doesn't seem to feel awkward about it. He seems…. Genuinely curious. I change the subject.

/So how do you become a Keyblade Master?/ I ask.

"You have to have a special heart—a strong heart that's capable of manifesting a Keyblade," Sora says. "When the Master sees that you've got potential, you can start training to be a Keyblade Master."

/A Master? There's a Master?/

"Duh." Sora rolls his eyes. "You think we just run around all willy-nilly?"

/How many more of there are you?/

Sora hesitates.

/I'm gonna find out anyway,/ I add.

"Three. Four, I guess, if you count Kairi, but she's still in training."

/Kairi?/

A girl with short red hair, kind, blue eyes, and a big smile is conjured up in Sora's memory. The image is heart-warming and beautiful. They're close, I can tell. Very close.

/Is she your girlfriend?/

Sora bursts out laughing. "Kairi? No way!" he says. "She's like my sister."

/So there's only four of you, more or less. And you have to defend all the worlds?/

"Yup. You got it."

/That sounds like a lot of work./

"Well, it's not like I'm on my own," Sora says.

Suddenly Sora is showing me more things in his mind, faces, people, places—_worlds_.

I am in a marketplace. It is insufferably hot in the desert. Sand-colored houses are around me. A tanned young man with black hair is talking with a monkey on his shoulder. A magic carpet swoops down from the sky and the man hops on it with a grin on his face. There is a princess he has to meet.

I am under the ocean. The water is clean and clear. A girl—no, a mermaid with flowing red hair is swimming towards me with a red crab and yellow flounder at her side. She is small, but she is strong. She longs to go to the surface and every night she dreams of other worlds.

I am in the dark. There are nightmares around me, but I am not afraid. They are my friends. A lithe skeleton in a black suit is dancing happily with a gray-skinned, patch-work woman with long, red hair, red lips, and wide eyes.

I am in a castle that is more than it seems. The suits of armor move and the furniture talks. The candelabra and the clock fight the most, but they're the best of friends. I see a monstrous beast, but even though his appearance is frightening I know he is my friend. He is searching for someone. A young woman named Belle. She is everything to him.

/Wow./ I say in astonishment.

"That's just a little of what I've seen," Sora says.

/It's fantastic! And there's more?/

"Tons more!"

I feel ecstatic and I think Sora does too, talking about the things he'd seen. Suddenly something catches Sora's eye, a man in a black, hooded, leather jacket who was shifting through the crowd. It was a strange sight for someone to be dressed in a full-body garment on a place as tropical as Destiny, but no one seemed to notice except Sora and I.

Instantly, Sora's mind becomes sharp, clear, and focused. That man is familiar to Sora, but not in a good way. Through Sora's senses I can tell that the man in black is more than what he appears. He isn't human.

/Sora, who is that?/

'Not now, Riku,' the brunet replies. Crap, he's actually remembering not to talk out loud to me. That's not a good sign.

Sora's shifts through the crowd like a ghost after the mysterious man. He heads out to the coast and glides over the water towards a familiar direction.

'Where is he going, Riku?' Sora asks.

/Over there's a small island./ Through my memories I show Sora a path to the cave I had visited often in my childhood. It was a secret place riddled with childhood drawings. I haven't thought about it in a long, long time. In my youth it had been a place full of adventure. Dark and dank and mysterious; in the back there was a great, big door with strange golden markings. Even though there was no doorknob, no indication that the slab of wood was a door, I knew it could open.

'Riku, that's—!'

Sora's mind jerks into overdrive the moment I show him the image of the door. He picks up the pace in his pursuit, his hands itching to summon the Keyblade.

We quickly commandeer a small dingy and follow the man out to sea, my memory guiding Sora to the familiar path to the island and the once well-walked trail to the cave. We crawl through the small opening.

"Who are you!" Sora demands as he finally wiggles free from the tunnel and gets to his feet. But there is no one. "Damn! Did you see where he went, Riku?"

/No, I didn't,/ I reply.

Sora sighs, crestfallen.

/Who _was_ that guy?/

"An anonymous party," Sora responds, "who's been trailing us since we started."

/Creepy. What do you think he wants?/

"We have no idea." Sora catches sight of the door. The Keyblade vibrates in his hand. Sora raises his weapon and a beam of golden light shoots out of the tip and at the door. A keyhole appears to receive the light and a distinct sound of a lock clicking is heard. As quickly as the keyhole appears, it's gone.

"There," Sora says. "At least this world is safe."

/He led us here to the door,/ I say. /Why do you think he would do that? Is he a bad guy?/

"I don't know." Sora inhales deeply and sighs loudly, blowing away all of his troubles in an instant in a way that only he can. "Well, he's gone now."

He looks up at the cave, tracing my childhood artworks inscribed in cheap chalk on the dark stone. He laughs as he spots a poor rendition of a fish. "Nice work," he giggles.

/Oh, shut up, like you can do any better,/ I mutter.

"Looks like you really partied it up when you were a kid," Sora looks up at the ceiling, which also had a few tic-tac-toe games.

/Nah, it was just me,/ I replied. /I didn't have any friends as a kid./

"…Are you sure?" Something is turning in the back of Sora's mind, something he's trying to keep from me.

/Sora?/

"Hey, Riku, how do you play Hang Man?"

The question throws me off guard. /What do you mean 'how do you play Hang Man?' You think of a word, draw as many blanks as there are letters in that world, and the other player has to guess it—"

"Right, so you need two people to play Hang Man."

/Yeah./

"So how didyou play Hang Man by yourself?" Sora points to a few Hang Man games scribbled on the wall.

I stare at the stone for a moment, trying to conjure up the memory in my mind. /I…/

But I draw a blank.

/…I…/

"And Riku, something else has been bothering me since you told me about your father. You said that schizophrenia starts up early so your father obviously couldn't take care of you while you were growing up and you don't have a mother. …So who took care of you?"

Suddenly I'm aware of a big, gaping emptiness in my memory—in my _life._ It was so big and vast, how could I have not noticed? I could feel the entirety of it now in my mind, a blank, black amorphous nothing that shouldn't be there.

/Sora… Sora what's wrong with me? Why can't I remember?!/

* * *

**- See you next chapter!**

_**|Corrosive Moon|**_


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